Scherz, Anneliese & Ernst Rudolf

The chemical engineer Ernst Rudolf Scherz (1906-1981) had emigrated to Windhoek (Namibia) from Germany in 1933, his wife, the photographer Anneliese Fuss-Hippel (1900-1985) following him in 1938. The couple became well-known (rock art) researchers and photographers, with numerous publications. They had befriended Carl Schlettwein in the 1950s and since 1966 visited Basel regularly. Carl Schlettwein published E.R. Scherz’s annual newsletters in 1982 as ‘Südwestafrika. Jahresberichte 1962-1979’ (re-published in 2005) whilst Anneliese Scherz donated their photography and manuscript archives to the BAB when the couple settled in Hildesheim Germany in the late 1970s. The Scherz archive is one of the largest BAB Personal Archives and can be accessed online through the BAB website. The BAB archive staff have written a couple of BAB Working Papers on aspects of the collection, and various finding aids, all published by the BAB Publishing House and accessible through the Open Access platform on the BAB website.